While Rashad Evans maintains that he just recently left Team Jackson, his former striking coach, Mike Winkeljohn, says that the former UFC light heavyweight champion hasn’t worked full time in New Mexico for over a year, but he’ll always be part of the family.

“I’m not sure I should be out of a job because I used to train somebody, and he decided not to use me anymore,” Winkeljohn explained in an interview with MMAWeekly Radio.

“I’m a little bit different than Greg. I’m going to work with Jon Jones. If Jon Jones wants me there, I’m going to continue to work with him. It’s going to be very hard coaching against Rashad Evans, but that’s kind of how I looked at it.”

“There’s two sides to every story. What I saw was, I had an eye injury and came back, and Rashad had been doing ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ show after he lost to Machida, and I wasn’t involved in that show at all. I told Rashad I’m going to stay and train fighters, and if you need me let me know."

“He lost to Machida and he was a little down, and I think I made a mistake in that I didn’t console him enough cause I didn’t know Rashad worked that way. Back when I was fighting, the last thing I wanted was someone to come console me after I fought. I said stay away, but it might have been the way we talked the next day. After that, I lost contact with the guy, so he shows up and says, ‘I don’t know, I’m not real comfortable with Jon Jones being here,’ and I said, ‘well, I just got back, I just lost my eye in the accident,’ and I said, ‘have you talked to Greg (Jackson) about it,’ and he says, ‘yeah, I don’t know, we’ll see how it goes.’ So I know they had talked about it, but I don’t think anyone actually made a positive (statement) like ‘Greg, I don’t want him here.’

“All I know is how it unfolded in my eyes as all of a sudden Rashad Evans goes to Denver. He says he wanted to work on his wrestling and they have some great wrestlers up there. I never told him to go away from his wrestling, I was just trying to turn him into the best striker in the light heavyweight division, and I wasn’t involved in his next few camps."

“Greg would go up there and work the corner, I’m not sure how much he actually worked with him in the meantime. So in my eyes, Rashad kind of left the camp, well he kind of left me at least.”

“He’s got a lot of people in his ear, he lost the fight (to Machida), and I think he lost the fight before he ever got in there. Bless his heart, everybody has those days. Rashad Evans is so much better than when he fought Machida, but he had that day where he hit that funk. He didn’t do anything in the game plan that Greg and I had put together for him, and he was just looking for something else.”

“In the meantime, I texted him and said what do you want me to do? Do you want me to teach Jon Jones? I called him. He didn’t answer my phone calls. So I’m honestly going to still train this kid. He’s a great kid. Jon Jones didn’t do anything wrong. He comes to camp and just learns and tries hard and studies."

“Maybe Rashad Evans left for a lot of different reasons, maybe Jon Jones is part of it, but I also think he left because he was looking for something else. He was maybe not as comfortable with Greg and I after losing to Machida, but all I know is here we are and we have two of the greatest fighters ever that are going to fight each other, and it’s unfortunate, I’d rather not see them fight each other except they have to fight each other."

K-Dub-"T" - Am i the only one who thinks Winklejon & Whittman have big fucking mouths? And wouldn't mind seeing them fight and double K.O. each other? For good?

eh, neither honestly bother me. They are obviously passionate and loyal to their boys, which is refreshing as there are some coaches out there that are more about themselves. I can see why some may think they are annoying though, but hell there are FAR more annoying coaches out there imo.

who is the dumfuk that picks this one line out of that entire interview as the title of the page?you need shot in the head, because every time there is an article where someone is actually saying something worthwhile, you go and pick the one line that can be taken horribly out of context -take it horribly out of context- and use that as your swill to pull in the idiots like the people above me.you all make me sick.

it was ridiculous that Rashad would feel Greg needed his permission to have a guy come in, it was ridiculous when Rashad acted like this guy he just met was now his blood brother, and it was ridiculous to get butthurt over them HAVING to fight since a WORLD TITLE is on the line. It's one thing to avoid Jardine, but avoid a title shot over some guy you didn't know a few years back? I'm so sick of this drama queen baby.

Diego had a much better argument because he literally put Jackson's on the map.

who is the dumfuk that picks this one line out of that entire interview as the title of the page?you need shot in the head, because every time there is an article where someone is actually saying something worthwhile, you go and pick the one line that can be taken horribly out of context -take it horribly out of context- and use that as your swill to pull in the idiots like the people above me.you all make me sick.

You must not be familiar with the way UG News works. Posters here like to talk about OMA, CRE, superCalo, etc. as trolls but UG News is the biggest troll on this board by far. At least this wasn't a bleacher report article (this time).

being Jones' coach, Wink is now forced to respond because Jon Jones has nothing to do with all of this. He's gotta salvage what's been done. Seems like it was a hard situation and things happened the way they happened. Happens all of the time in real life. I don't like Rashad, he just irks me when he speaks, but I can understand his situation. Best of luck to both fighters and the coaches need to pick a side. If Greg Jackson sits this one out, Rashad still gonna dislike him. He might as well choose since he's being forced to. Just sayin....

Eveready - So this is the guy that trained Rashad and Jardine to move around like twats on the feet...

Oh so you judge his coaching ability based on two fighters style of fighting? Rashad had that style of dancing around before he got to Jackson's and I'm sure he has tried to change Jardine's puppet like stance but sometimes you have to work with what you got. Let's not forget that this is "the guy" who also was training Rashad when he knocked out Chuck...

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